The secrets to retaining happy staff in 2019

The new year has dawned and with it comes new aspirations. A recent survey by leading recruitment company Citrus Group has found almost a quarter of Australians left their last role due to a lack of career progression. So how can you ensure your business has the opportunities to keep your staff happy?

While a competitive salary ranked highly amongst those surveyed, job flexibility (22 per cent) and culture (13 per cent) were also prized by respondents. Career progression (14 per cent) and the option to work from home (12 per cent) were also important.

Interestingly, when questioned, additional reasons provided by those surveyed as to why they departed a job were; no career progression (22%); no option to work from home (15%); low salary (14%); bad culture (13%); no job flexibility (9%) and finally, no job incentives (7%),

Joint Managing Director of Citrus Group, Paul Smith, suggests the survey highlights the key areas that those in leadership positions should focus on to improve on in their own workplaces.

“It’s clear that Australians value Things such as career progression, job flexibility and workplace culture alongside salary, when looking for new roles, signalling clear areas for leaders to improve on in their own workplaces.

High staff turnover can be extremely costly for businesses, and so leaders should look to creating workplace environments that support staff retention.”

Here, Paul shares his tips on how to recruit and retain great talent:

Offer job flexibility to staff members: With 22% of Australians citing job flexibility as the most important factor in a workplace, and 12% stating the option to work from home even more important, clearly job flexibility needs to be a top priority for all managers. By allowing staff to work from home, implementing flexible working hours or job sharing, staff work-life balance will improve, in turn increasing productivity, job satisfaction and company success.

Foster employee development: Our research showed that 14% of Australians felt that career progression and a clear career path was most attractive to them when choosing a workplace, signalling the need for great leaders to provide just that. By taking a keen interest in each staff members’ professional development and career goals and giving them clear guidelines, they will achieve these, great leaders can create teams that feel acknowledged and supported in their growth, which is key for a thriving team.

Create an inclusive team environment: It goes without saying that for staff to enjoy a role, they need to feel part of a team. In fact, 13% of Australians cited bad culture as a top reason for leaving a previous role. As we know, culture comes from the top, thus managers are crucial to creating inclusive and supportive teams. Some ways of doing so are ensuring you hire people who fit in with your culture, having cultural ambassadors within your team, creating a positive environment, and encouraging social connections.

Build trust: Employees need to be led by someone that they trust. As such, leaders must make sure to always be open and honest with all staff members, share company successes and losses (where appropriate), and ensure they always have their team member’s backs and best interests in mind. Employees that don’t have trust in their boss will, in turn, become unproductive, disengaged and disconnected.

Offer fair pay to employees: With the largest number of Australians (30%) listing salary as most important to them when looking for a new job, it’s clear to see that fair pay is crucial to staff happiness. As a leader, it’s up to you to ensure all staff are paid fairly for the work they do, A and that they aren’t discriminated against in any way.

Cec is the managing editor of KBB. She is a multimedia professional with 20 years experience as an editor on titles as diverse as SX, CULT, Better Pictures, Total Rock, MTV, fasterlouder, mynikonlife and Fantastic Living. She has extensive experience working as a news journalist covering all the issues that matter in the political, health and LGBTIQ arena. She is the Head of Content at Pinstripe Media and a recent convert to the world of small business.